From Eastern Europe to the Middle East, from Africa to the East China Sea, the world is battered by violence and threatened by instability. Can the US, the lone “superpower,” impose order on chaos? What are the prospects for World War III?

FROM THIS EPISODE

Since the end of the Cold War, when the US emerged as the only “superpower,” another World War has seemed almost unthinkable. But recently, the “superpower” has been unable to contain widespread violence fueled by local conflicts, religion and nationalist ambitions. One hundred years ago, international complacency was shattered by World War I. Could that happen again? If chaos is the “new norm,” does it contain the seeds of another global upheaval? Also, an American major general was killed today in Afghanistan. He’s the highest-ranking American officer to die in hostilities since the Vietnam War. And, the ban on drinking from the public water supply has been lifted in Toledo, Ohio… but that’s not the end of the story.

Image: Ongoing conflicts around the world: the locations where the conflicts are taking place are colored. By: Futuretrillionaire

An American major general was killed today in Afghanistan. He’s the highest-ranking American officer to die in hostilities since the Vietnam War. A German general was wounded, along with other soldiers, by a man described by Afghan authorities as “wearing the Afghan National Army uniform.” Matthew Rosenberg is reporting from Kabul for the New York Times.

If chaos is the “new norm,” does it contain the seeds of another global upheaval? World War I was the “war to end all wars,” but it didn’t turn out that way. After World War II and the Cold War, another global conflict has come to be regarded as unthinkable. But this month’s issue of the Atlantic magazine contains an article titled, “Yes It Could Happen Again.” The author is Roger Cohen, foreign editor for the New York Times for more than a decade, now a columnist based in London.

Guests:Robin Wright, US Institute of Peace and Woodrow Wilson Center (@wrightr)
Randall Schweller, Author and Professor of Political Science at Ohio State UniversityRoger Cohen, Columnist for the New York Times; Foreign editor for three years